So in my reading the other day, Jesus was talking to unclean spirits (called themselves “Legion”) in a possessed man, and they pleaded with Him not to cast them away, “out of the country” and asked to be cast into some nearby pigs, and Jesus did so.
And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
Mark 5:2-13 ESV
So why did Jesus (appear to) show grace to this Legion and grant the request? Seems odd to me, why not get rid of them altogether? And what happens to spirits when the host dies? Do they die with them (eg did Legion die with the pigs), or are they free then to find a new host? Or something else altogether?
I don’t know the answer, that’s just my ponderings…
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